Disclosure Details

Homeless - 388/16

Provision of information held by Northumbria Police made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the 'Act')

Thank you for your e mail dated 21 March 2016 in which you made a request for access to certain information which may be held by Northumbria Police.

As you may be aware the purpose of the Act is to allow a general right of access to information held at the time of a request, by a Public Authority (including the Police), subject to certain limitations and exemptions.

You asked:

1. How many homeless people (defined as an individual sleeping rough) have had their person or clothing (e.g. sleeping bag, clothes, or cardboard) intentionally set on fire in the following years?

Could the data please be broken down into the following: - By year: 2008; 2010; 2012; 2013; 2014; 2015; and 2016 (so far)

2. How the incident was recorded (e.g. whether it was an assault or arson/criminal damage)

3. Should the above requests not exceed the FOI limit, it would be very interesting to know how many arrests related to these incidents were made in the same time period?

We have now had the opportunity to fully consider your request and I provide a response for your attention

Following receipt of your request, searches were conducted with the Corporate Development Department of Northumbria Police. I can confirm that the information you have requested is held by Northumbria Police.

I am able to disclose the located information to you as follows.

The response is based on victims in years 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and up to 06/04/2016 with address recorded as 'no fixed abode' in the victim page of the crime record. Each crime record was reviewed to understand if it related to a person or clothing having been intentionally set on fire. We are unable to provide data for 2008 as we only have easy accessible victim data from 2009/10, therefore to avoid exemptions being applied to your whole request we have provided data for the remaining time periods requested.

In 2012 there was one offence of Arson not endangering life, for which the victim's address was 'no fixed abode'. The victim's tent and items within were set on fire. Three people were arrested in relation to this offence.

In 2014 there was one offence of Assault with intent to cause serious harm, for which the victim's address was 'no fixed abode'. The victim's sleeping bag was set on fire whilst they were inside it. Two people were arrested in relation to this offence.

Due to the different methods of recording information across 43 forces, a specific response from one constabulary should not be seen as an indication of what information could be supplied (within cost) by another. Systems used for recording these figures are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the data. For this reason responses between forces may differ, and should not be used for comparative purposes.

The information we have supplied to you is likely to contain intellectual property rights of Northumbria Police. Your use of the information must be strictly in accordance with the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 (as amended) or such other applicable legislation. In particular, you must not re-use this information for any commercial purpose.